Claves
is a member of of the Forte resistance group Andantino in the [[World of Eternal Sonata|World of Eternal Sonata]], and the lover of Jazz, Andantino's leader. Appearance and Personality She wears a distinct outfit. One leg has a stocking, one doesn't; she wears knee-high, armor-like boots. A gauntlet on one arm and a glove on the other and the torso piece is finished off with a sash and a rose. Her hair is pulled back in a braid and two smaller bangs come down from near her ears. She has only just recently joined Andantino and seems to have trouble remembering complicated strategies, much to the annoyance of another key Andantino member, Falsetto, Jazz's childhood friend. She seems somewhat quiet and a bit nervous at times. Despite this, she is also shown to have a sense of humor when later in the game, she jokes with fellow party member, Salsa (which she apologizes immediately afterwards). She appears to have a considerable amount of knowledge of the world when discussing mineral powder and Fusion River with the party. It is implied that her relationship with Jazz is quite passionate, though little of this shown on-screen. Story An Important Mission Claves initially appears with her fellow Andantino members Jazz and Falsetto as the group discusses an important mission, a plan to infiltrate the dungeon of Forte Castle through their secret passage and rescue the Guardian of Agogo Forest. Claves, seemingly unclear about the details, asks Jazz to go over the mission again, irritating Falsetto, though Jazz doesn’t seem to mind, given the critical nature of the mission. The group goes ahead with their mission, but when they arrive at the entrance to the secret passage, they find themselves surprised by the sudden exit from the passage of Salsa, shortly followed by Frédéric François Chopin, Allegretto, Beat, Polka and Viola. Falsetto is shocked and demands an explanation, and Frederic explains that they all just escaped from the dungeon. Falsetto is eager to get back to the mission, but Jazz stops her for a moment and asks if the party might be able to help, as they’re looking for the Guardian of Agogo Forest. Salsa identifies herself as such, and the members of Andantino find their mission surprisingly complete. Viola suggests that they come back to her house and Jazz agrees. Falsetto comments that it’s boring when things always go according to plan and that it’s nice to have things shaken up once in a while. She asks Claves about this and Claves, seemingly startled, agrees. A Selfish King The party travels back through Fort Fermata on their way to Viola’s house and as they do, Allegretto asks Frederic the reason why he’s journeying with them. Frederic considers and tells them that at this moment, he’s lying on his deathbed in Paris, France and that the world around them exists in a dream he’s having. The party is generally disbelieving of this idea, and Frederic comments that it’s possible he’s losing his ability to distinguish between what is real and what is unreal. Claves thinks that he’s over-complicating things and comments that reality is something that just is, like how one isn’t conscious of the air that they’re breathing. The party continues to the exit area of Fort Fermata and Jazz asks if they know why the fortress was built. Everyone thinks that it was to protect Forte from invasion by pirates and such, but Jazz says that’s not the real reason. Claves asks what the real reason is and Jazz explains that the fortress was built by a “Sage King” who once ruled over Forte. This king was widely respected by the people and because of their respect for him, society flourished, but the king grew to depend on their admiration and respect so much that he built Fort Fermata to keep everyone inside Forte City. At first, nobody cared, but eventually discontent spread and the selfish king was dethroned. The party continues to the Cabasa Bridge, discussing the mineral powder on the way. They realize that if Waltz is able to get a hold of glowing agogos, he'll be able to create an enhanced mineral powder that will provide him with great power. Just then, Tuba, who was the one who earlier locked the party in the dungeon, shows up and confronts them, forcing them into a battle with him. They party wins, but Tuba summons the last of his power to use his mace to collapse the bridge, sending the party plummeting into the Fusion River below. The Journey Home Allegretto, Viola and the members of Andantino are split from the rest of the party and find themselves in the Adagio Swamp. They set up camp there and Allegretto asks what the name of the river that they fell into was. Claves tells him that it was the Fusion River and that crops in the area grow very well because of the rich minerals that it carries from Mt. Rock. Jazz interrupts, saying that was in the past, but things have changed ever since Forte started mining Mt. Rock for the minerals. "A lifetime to build, but it only takes a moment to destroy," notes Falsetto. The party gets some rest and then proceeds into the main swamp area to begin making their way to Andante, the home of Andantino, though Claves initially expresses reservations about wading through such a dirty, murky swamp. The party travels through the swamp and arrives at the Cantabile Inn. That night, Allegretto and Viola talk with Jazz and Allegretto tells Jazz that he thinks there may be a spy in his group, as Tuba apparently mistook the party for Andantino before throwing them in the dungeon. Jazz is disturbed, as Falsetto and Claves were the only other individuals who knew about the mission, which would mean that one of them is the spy. The party spends the night at the inn and then makes their way through the poisonous Woodblock Groves, eventually reaching a waterfall area where they are confronted by a nasty creature. They defeat the monster and finally arrive in Andante. The Real Claves Allegretto, Viola and Falsetto head into the main Andante town for a tour, while Jazz and Claves retreat to the group's hideout house on Lake Reverb to recover and discuss recent events. There, Jazz mentions to Claves the possibility of there being a spy in the group and says that he believes it to be Falsetto, as she's been acting oddly combative lately, especially towards Claves, but she never used to be that way. Claves suggests that Falsetto may simply be jealous of their romance with each other and Jazz says he hopes that's all that it is, but he's known her since childhood and he can tell when she's hiding something from him. Claves then stands up, seeming to have a revelation. She says that if there was really a spy, then the guards should have been waiting for them at the entrance to the secret passage, as their plan was to infiltrate the dungeon directly from there. Jazz admits that she's right and thanks her, as he was just about to lose his faith in Falsetto. He leaves the house to go fetch the other members of the party. Back in the house, Claves is clutching her stomach in pain. She's just been stabbed by another woman, whom she recognizes as being named Rondo. The woman tells her that the information that she provided was valuable, but she was ordered to kill her if her identity was ever revealed. Claves had the perfect opportunity to frame Falsetto as the spy, but she didn't, and Rondo says that the failure cannot go unpunished. She exits the house, leaving Claves to do. Claves says that she already knew that Falsetto suspected her and has some flashbacks of snippy comments from Falsetto that indicated her suspicion. She says that Waltz made a mistake in choosing her for the mission because she fell in love with the target and she's both a failure as a spy and an idiot. She says that she wanted to fight fairly with Falsetto and have Jazz choose her, but admits that fairness is the last thing anyone would expect from someone as deceitful as her. A dove lands on the window of the house and Claves ties a message to its leg. She tells it to fly away, stating that this time its destination is not Forte, but Baroque. She collapses, saying that she had to do at least one good deed or the valkyries wouldn't come for her, and that in the end, she wanted to be the real her. Aftermath and Resurrection Following Claves's death, Falsetto is sent into despair. She wanders the world and eventually catches up with the party in the Aria Temple, which the party is visiting after Jazz went to talk with Prince Crescendo of Baroque about aiding Andantino, but Crescendo said he needed more time to think. The party is being confronted by Rondo, who has been ordered to bring Polka to Count Waltz and is planning to kill the rest of the party. Falsetto takes on Rondo with the party's help, explaining that she felt she'd never be able to compete with Claves -- that she'd just become more and more bitter, but Claves would always have a smile on her face. She says, however, that she's not going to run anymore, and she can put herself on equal footing with Claves by defeating Rondo. Much later, the party defeats Count Waltz and his lieutenant, Legato and they receive an item called the Hero's Crest that appears to be some sort of key. They travel to the Noise Dunes of Fantasy and find within the Oasis area there an odd door. Using the Hero's Crest, they unlock the door and find themselves in a labyrinth of a dungeon called Mysterious Unison. In the first area, to their great surprise, they find Claves. She explains that after she died, she felt her soul separating from her body and cried out "Let me see him!" and then awoke here. She's alive, but her soul has been scattered into many pieces throughout the dungeon, which she's braved many times, with no success. The party agrees to help her and she joins the party, though if the party attempts to leave the dungeon, she is unable to come with them, as her soul is not yet in complete unison. The party travels through the labyrinth, gathering her Soul Shards and along the way again defeating Rondo, who also found herself in the labyrinth upon her defeat at the party's hands. They defeat her again and eventually reach the final area of the dungeon, where they confront a vicious beast called Annihilator. Upon defeating it, they receive the final Soul Shard and a light radiates from Claves, whose soul is now in complete unison. The party cheers her resurrection and upon leaving the area, the player is presented with the final installment in Chopin's life story, "Heroic." Fighting Style Claves fights with a rapier. Early on the player will not get to see much of her combat potential due to her dropping out of the story after finishing the Woodblock Groves dungeon. At this time, all of Claves's stats are rather dismal, lower in all areas compared with those of the other characters in the party. Her MAG stat in particular begins at a very low number, something which is not to her advantage as a healer. However, when she is regained in the extra dungeon and starts gaining levels, her abilities begin to shine. It will be best to move her to a light area and have her heal with Unicorn Horn while other more powerful characters dispatch opponents until she is able to hold her own. With the high EXP levels granted by the opponents of this dungeon, she will often gain two to three levels per battle, and many more if alive at the end of a battle with one of the bosses of this dungeon. Once she learns Beast Meteor, she can be moved to a distance in dark areas and attack at infinite range with that. For slightly faster battles, keep her in the fray and just revive her as needed. An alternative strategy is to leave her out of the party for a while until she has gained some levels - she will gain half EXP if she is out of the party and will eventually gain a high enough level to reasonably hold her own. If the player continuously includes her in the party and fights all battles with the roaming monsters in Unison, then she will likely be on par with the rest of the party by the time the player reaches Deep Lurker. She begins gaining greater stat boosts, eventually maxing with stats superior to those of the others. She even finishes with the highest SPD stat in the Xbox 360 version, and is second only to Serenade in this area in the PlayStation 3 version. She also will finish with better MAG than several other characters. Claves fights with swift slashes and stabs of her sword, being able to build Echoes fairly well, and her best weapon adds an extra combo when her normal attacks hit, allowing her to build enough Echoes within a single turn to launch a Harmony Chain sequence. Her Unicorn Horn also serves as a pretty decent healing move (though it tends to be overshadowed by Viola's Heal Arrow). She can also play a bit of a long range game with Bird Swarm and Beast Meteor. Aiatar Horn has deceptive range; despite the in-game description claims it hits only one target, it can actually strike anyone else nearby (even a target standing behind her). Finally, Claves can equip heavy armor like Allegretto and Jazz, so her defense is nothing short of sufficient. In the PlayStation 3 version of Eternal Sonata, the levels at which Claves learns a couple of her dark Special Attacks, including the powerful Obsidian Needle, were greatly lowered, making it much more attractive to use her early on in Mysterious Unison. Special Attacks This is a complete list of Claves's Special Attacks. Some of Claves's moves were altered in the PlayStation 3 port, so she learns some abilities at different levels. Gallery Image:Es-claves1.jpg|Artwork Image:Es-claves2.jpg|CG Render Claves's Level-Up Pose.jpg|Claves doing a Level Up pose Scrapbook - The Past.jpg|Eternal Sonata Scrapbook Kasdeya's Protofile.jpeg Claves_Wallpaper_by_Yuuhiko.png images (1).jpg Etymology A claves is a type of percussion instrument consisting of a pair of short, thick dowels. They were traditionally made of wood, but in modern times are typically made of more resilient materials. They are often featured in Afro-Cuban and certain types of German minimal techno music, but have also been used by some popular artists.Wikipedia entry on Claves Behind the scenes *Claves and Rondo apparently have a past history of working together, as one of the photos in the Eternal Sonata Scrapbook, titled "The Past," features the two together with Claves's caption "This picture is from an job I did." Given this, Claves's statement to Rondo upon first seeing her in Eternal Sonata, "I know you. You're Rondo," seems somewhat odd, as this doesn't seem the sort of statement that would be made to a former compatriot. This may, however, simply be a poor translation. *In the Xbox 360 version, following the party's defeat of the White Jewel in the Double Reed Tower, a scene takes place in which Claves and Frederic have a discussion against a black background about an art-form that could be even be appreciated by God, a music that could make one feel space and dimension. This scene takes place regardless of whether or not Claves has been resurrected. This scene is absent in the PlayStation 3 version, as all scenes depicting Chopin against a black background are replaced with scenes of Chopin interacting with the actual party. *In the PlayStation 3 version, an alternate scene is available in the Church of EZI dungeon if Claves has been fully resurrected. If she is absent when the party examines the picture of flowers, then Polka, Beat and Viola will have a conversation in which Viola mentions that she and Arco sometimes eat flowers, noting that picky eaters aren't allowed at her house. If, however, Claves is present, then Beat will note the oddness of the flower on the left and Viola will ask Claves if she ever saw any flowers like that on the other side. Claves will reply that she did -- a vast field of them on the bank of a river that sang in a high-pitched buzz, like mosquitoes. *Resurrecting Claves earns the player the Claves's Resurrection Achievement in the Xbox 360 version of Eternal Sonata. *Claves is the only left-handed party member. This is apparent from the way she uses her rapier. *Claves is the only Andantino member who has a healing skill and starts off with two light skills. *At level 99, Claves has the highest HP and Attack stat of the female characters in both the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions. *Also in both versions, the levels required for Claves to earn her final special attacks (Beast Meteor for Xbox 360 and Wolf Fang for PS3) are the highest of all characters. *In the PS3 version, Wolf Fang is the only special attack in the game that is earned at a level above 70 (most characters earn their final special skills in levels mid/late 60). *Claves's character is absent from the manga adaptation of Eternal Sonata. Notes and references Category:Forte agents Category:Members of Andantino Category:Playable characters